Sometimes I watch a film that is so terribly written and sloppily realized that my mind drifts from what I am actually witnessing on the screen to what I imagine the creators – the writer, the director, the set designers, the costumers, the performers – discussed and observed while they prepared for and wheeled into reality their cinematic travesty.

What inkling of the disaster might be revealed in the words and minds of the very people who brought it forth?

I was besotted by such musings during Fangs of the Living Dead, otherwise known as Malenka, a supremely schlocky European horror film from the twilight of the sixties directed by Spanish director Amando de Ossorio and starring Swedish sex siren Anita Ekberg. It’s a wreck from beginning to end, especially the end, though I confess abandoning it never truly Read the rest of this entry »

Vampires: a Belgian French-language mockumentary that tracks the lives of a typical nuclear family – of vampires – as they face challenges with a rebellious son and a morose teenage daughter. It’s a spoof of sorts, not on reality television or specific vampire films; instead it uses the medium of cinéma vérité for a new spin on today’s pop fetish for vampires.

Loud Family Portrait

Think of the 1973 PBS show, An American Family, tracking the Louds over a period of time – only here it’s with the undead. We follow the ups and some unexpected downs, though none approach the Read the rest of this entry »

A few months ago I noticed that Netflix was streaming the original Dark Shadows ABC daytime soap opera, no doubt coordinated with the release of the film adaptation set for May 2012. After a moment’s hesitation, I knew that I had to go back – return to my five-year-old self and confront one of my deepest fears: Barnabas Collins, the agent of many childhood nightmares that left an imprint of anxiety on my psyche that may have never been fully erased. I was about to conduct Read the rest of this entry »